Beastie Boys
Ill Comunication

THE REVIEW

“Ill comunication” is certainly one of the key works of the first half of the 90s, to understand those stylistic hybridizations that have often been labeled under the name of crossover.

The three bad boys from the Big Apple started with the famous “Licensed to ill” in 1986, one of the greatest bestsellers of the 80s: this record was proposed as a first meeting between rap and rock culture. But it was with the subsequent “Paul’s boutique” that the Beasties' stylistic register broadened, embracing funk, sampling, and electronics, thanks to the fundamental production of the Dust Brothers.

After the excellent “Check your head” in 1992, it was time for the fundamental "Ill comunication”. This album was accompanied by a simply stunning first single. That “Sabotage” which is remembered not just for the famous video directed by Spike Jonze, but above all for constituting one of the most exciting and explosive sound mixes of the 90s: a breathtaking hardrock-funk-rap hybrid, the song that perhaps even Rage against the machine hadn’t managed to forge.
The rest of the album is no less, and it constitutes a formidable sound kaleidoscope where you find everything: from the excellent hardcore of “Tough guy “ (a fierce dedication to Bill Laimbeer, legendary center of the Detroit Pistons), to the classic old school exercises (“B-Boys Makin' With the Freak Freak”, “Get it together”), or again abyssal funky grooves (“Sure shot”, ”Root down”), and a whole series of fabulous instrumentals, particularly the funk-bossanova of “Futterman's rule”, driven by the keyboards of the great Money Mark.

A special mention also for the oriental experiment of “Bodhisattva vow”, which marks a notable leap in the lyrics - not far from Kerouac's “The Dharma Bums” - light-years away from the notorious and foul-mouthed sexism of the first record.

Ultimately, “ill comunication” may be a step below "Paul’s boutique” and "Licensed to ill” in the group's discography, but it remains, all things considered, one of the emblematic albums of the 90s, for the influence it exerted on a myriad of artists: a random name, Beck.